1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording control device and a method, a recording medium, and a program, and more particularly, to a recording control device and a method in which a program reserved to be recorded can be more reliably recorded, to a recording medium, and to a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In related art, for example, when a television broadcast (distribution) program from a broadcast station is recorded by a recording and reproducing apparatus, such as a hard disk drive (hereinafter, referred to as HDD) video recorder or the like, a user operates a remote controller which is appended to the recording and reproducing apparatus, such that, on the basis of broadcast start time, at which the broadcast of the program starts, and broadcast end time, at which the broadcast of the program ends, included in EPG (Electronic Program Guide) data, recording start time at which recording of the program starts and recording end time at which recording of the program ends are set, and recording of the program is reserved.
A composition of program broadcast time may be changed according to circumstances of the broadcast station. For example, as regards broadcast time of the television broadcast program, a program (hereinafter, referred to as special program) for an unexpected incident or an accident may be urgently composed, and then program broadcast time after the special program may be changed. Further, as for a program (hereinafter, referred to as sports relay program) which relays a sports game, such as soccer or baseball, from the nature, since end time of the game may extend, broadcast time of the sports relay program extends, and thus program broadcast time after the sports relay program may be changed.
If the composition of program broadcast time is changed, broadcast start time or broadcast end time of the program is changed, and the recording and reproducing apparatus may record a separate program from a program to be reserved for recording. Therefore, various technologies are proposed which are for recording a program de sired to be recorded by a user appropriately, even if the composition of program broadcast time is changed.
For example, in JP-A-2004-32128, a technology has been disclosed in which, when end time of a second contents prior to a first contents, which corresponds to the program through a television broadcast and the like to be reserved for recording, extends, end time of the first contents is assumed, and recording time of the first contents extends.
At present, pervasion of a terrestrial digital television broadcast (hereinafter, referred to as terrestrial digital broadcast) is in progress. As features of the terrestrial digital broadcast, for example, the number of channels and the number of programs are larger than those in a current terrestrial analog television broadcast (hereinafter, referred to as terrestrial analog broadcast).
Further, in the terrestrial digital broadcast, a video with high image quality and high sound quality is realized, an influence by ghost or noise is little, and a clear video is supplied, as compared with a program by the current terrestrial analog broadcast. For this reason, it is expected that the number of users who record the program is increased. On the other hand, when the number of programs is increased, it is expected that the possibility that program broadcast time for one day or one week may be changed increases. That is, it is expected that broadcast time of more programs is changed.
Like the program of the terrestrial digital broadcast, when broadcast time of plural programs are frequently changed, as for the correction of recording time to be reserved, there are technologies, such as the technology disclosed in JP-A-2004-32128, which has been currently suggested, in which recording time simply extends, or a method in which, when recording time of plural programs overlap one another, recording reservation of the program whose recording time overlaps is simply cancelled. However, they cannot be a best method.
In the related art, the cancellation of recording reservation of the program whose recording time overlaps means that, broadcast time of plural programs to be reserved for recording, that is, recording time of plural programs overlap one another, due to the change of the composition of program broadcast for example, when broadcast time (recording time) of two programs overlap each other, recording reservation of one program is cancelled.
At this time, with the change in broadcast time of the program again, for example, even when one or both of the two programs whose broadcast time (recording time) overlap each other are shifted, and recording of the two programs can be performed, the program whose recording reservation is cancelled once with the change in broadcast time is not recorded until the user reserves for recording of the program again.
As such, in the terrestrial digital broadcast, when program broadcast time (the composition of broadcast time) is changed according to the circumstances of the broadcast station, broadcast time of plural programs to be reserved for recording, that is, recording time of plural programs may overlap one another.
At this time, until the user notices that program broadcast time (the composition of broadcast time) is changed, and recording time of the program is corrected, a desired program is not suitably recorded.
For this reason, in order to reliably record the programs as much as possible, the user reserves recording of the program, and then confirms the composition of program broadcast time with reference to a composition table (list of program broadcast time), such as the EPG, such that a trouble arises.
Further, when, as for the program whose recording reservation is cancelled once, program broadcast time is changed again, in order to restore cancelled program recording reservation, a separate device (function) needs to be provided, in addition to a device (function) which corrects recording time of the program. That is, for example, there is a need for a device (function) which performs processing for holding (managing) a history of the cancellation of recording reservation of the program and, after the change in broadcast time again, for restoring cancelled program recording reservation on the basis of the stored history. Accordingly, in the recording and reproducing apparatus, such as the HDD video recorder, a more complex processing needs to be executed, and costs of the recording and reproducing apparatus is higher.